53 ROBERT ADAMS’S NARRATIVE.
approve of these conditions, a violent altercation arose;
but at length finding the Governor determined, and that
better terms were not to be had, he accepted the first
offer, and Adams became the slave of Mahomet. 04)
The natives of Hilla Gibla* appeared to be better clothed,
and a less savage race, than those of Vied Duleim, between
whom there appeared to be great enmity; the Governor
therefore readily interfered in favour of Adams, and at one
time threatened to take away the camel and to put
Mahomet Laubed himself to death. Another consideration
by which the Governor was probably influenced, was, a
knowledge of the value of a Christian slave, as an object
of ransom, of which Mahomet Laubed seemed to be
wholly ignorant.
On entering the service of his new master, Adams was
sent to tend camels, and had been so employed about a
fortnight, when this duty was exchanged for that of taking
care of goats. Mahomet had two wives who dwelt in
separate tents, one of them an old woman, the other
young: the goats which Adams was set to take care of,
were of the property of the elder one.
Some days after he had been so employed, the younger
wife*, whose name was Isha,-j~ proposed to him, that he
* El Kabla, D, *f* Aisha. D.
ROBERT ADAMS’S NARRATIVE. 39
should also take charge of her goats, for which she would
pay him; and as there was no more trouble in tending two
flocks than one, he readily consented. Having had charge
of the two flocks for several days, without receiving the
promised additional reward, he at length remonstrated ;
and after some negotiation on the subject of his claim, the
matter was compromised, by the young woman’s desiring
him, when he returned from tending the goats at night, to
go to rest in her tent. It was the custom of Mahomet to
sleep two nights with the elder woman, and one with the
other, and this was one of the nights devoted to the former.
Adams accordingly kept the appointment; and about
nine o’clock Isha came and gave him supper, and he
remained in her tent all night. This was an arrangement
which was afterwards continued on those nights which she
did not pass with her husband.
Things continued in this state about six months, and as
his work was light, and he experienced nothing but kind
treatment, his time passed pleasantly enough. One night
his master’s son coming into the tent, discovered Adams
with his mother-in-law,, and informed his father, when a
great disturbance took place: but upon the husband
charging his wife with her misconduct, she protested that
Adams had laid down in her tent without her knowledge or